starting a social media

[HotPatatoStart1995]

Hi guys.

I want to start a social media platform and i know nothing about coding and computing.

What kind of technical knowledge should i get? where do i start to understand?

I know the question seems odd and noobish but i'm serious.
What should i consider? how should i learn?

Happy for relevant advice of any (technical) kind.
it may sound like a stupid childish dream but if you think you can,
i'll appreciate advices that will help me get a hold of the field (from the technical side mainly).

thanks a lot!
Nave

 

[Ash]

Nothing stupid about it really. I thought it was going to be a difficult thing to do but during my gap year, I ended up coding a gaming social network and forum from scratch. It wasn't perfect but it was a nice project - https://www.hivegamurs.net/

The most important thing to start off is with your technical knowledge. How much experience do you have with programming? And what programming languages are you able to code in?

 

[HotPatatoStart1995]

Nothing stupid about it really. I thought it was going to be a difficult thing to do but during my gap year, I ended up coding a gaming social network and forum from scratch. It wasn't perfect but it was a nice project - https://www.hivegamurs.net/

The most important thing to start off is with your technical knowledge. How much experience do you have with programming? And what programming languages are you able to code in?

well.. i don't really know any code at the moment.
i have a business and i will be able to hire some programmers i believe but i would just like to have to basic knowledge to know who/what/how Etc

 

[Antero360]

well.. i don't really know any code at the moment.
i have a business and i will be able to hire some programmers i believe but i would just like to have to basic knowledge to know who/what/how Etc

Are you looking to have a already made platform where you can just add content and switch out themes and all that.. or are you looking either build it yourself or have a team build it from the ground up?

With my question, I am referring to possibly using website builders like wix, wordpress, squarespace, etc... or if you want to have this completely be something customized in all aspects

 

[HotPatatoStart1995]

Are you looking to have a already made platform where you can just add content and switch out themes and all that.. or are you looking either build it yourself or have a team build it from the ground up?

With my question, I am referring to possibly using website builders like wix, wordpress, squarespace, etc... or if you want to have this completely be something customized in all aspects

The second option, it would have to be a be a brand new platform that a team will build from the ground up.
in theory it will have a phone app as well.

 

[Antero360]

It is possible lol. The question now becomes: what frameworks/stacks to use for the front and back end... There's plenty of languages to choose from that work well with web development (C#, Visual Basic(VB) and for the ASP.NET framework...python for Flask and Django, javascript for jquery, React, Vue, Angular, Nodejs... java for JSP...etc ). Obviously you're going to have your html/css as the front end of it all. Then you have to think about the database aspect. For this, there's MySQL, SQL, NoSQL alias "Document based". Then comes the server... IIS server, Apache server, LAMP/XAMP.. and the hosting machine, Windows or Linux

 

[HotPatatoStart1995]

It is possible lol. The question now becomes: what frameworks/stacks to use for the front and back end... There's plenty of languages to choose from that work well with web development (C#, Visual Basic(VB) and for the ASP.NET framework...python for Flask and Django, javascript for jquery, React, Vue, Angular, Nodejs... java for JSP...etc ). Obviously you're going to have your html/css as the front end of it all. Then you have to think about the database aspect. For this, there's MySQL, SQL, NoSQL alias "Document based". Then comes the server... IIS server, Apache server, LAMP/XAMP.. and the hosting machine, Windows or Linux

thanks for the great and detailed reply!!!

im such a starter that its actually kind of awkward.

where can i learn the terms and basic concepts that you are talking about?
like front and back end, database and etc

i mean, i can search them up of course but i mean to ask where can a noob like me get the knowledge to know how it all works from a general point of view.
a way to understand how it all generally works. how is it all connected.

hope you get the hang od what im trying to ask.

Thank you anyway!
nave

 

[Antero360]

thanks for the great and detailed reply!!!

im such a starter that its actually kind of awkward.

where can i learn the terms and basic concepts that you are talking about?
like front and back end, database and etc

i mean, i can search them up of course but i mean to ask where can a noob like me get the knowledge to know how it all works from a general point of view.
a way to understand how it all generally works. how is it all connected.

hope you get the hang od what im trying to ask.

Thank you anyway!
nave

Youtube is your best friend 🙂

 

[HotPatatoStart1995]

Youtube is your best friend 🙂

your'e my best friend 🙂

btw can you point me to anything more specific?
a youtube vid/channel that would give me the holistic point of view on the subject?
of the technical side of social media.

 

[phofu]

I am also trying to make a social media platform! Good luck!

 

[Fait]

On my gaming forum we use to have a feed system until I found out Xenforo has those features anyway.

It’s hard at first but if it’s well thought out before you start writing the code you will definitely get there!

 

[Krygore]

where can i learn the terms and basic concepts that you are talking about?
like front and back end, database and etc

There are tons of free learning sites to learn the basics from including freecodecamp.org, upskillcourses.com, and more.

If you are willing to pay a little money (no more than $100) I recommend going over to Udemy.com and looking up Angela Yu's Complete Full-Stack Web Development Course. It covers everything from front end to back end and even gets you started with your first hosted domain through github.com.

I recommend this course because I am currently taking it and the way Angela teaches it makes it extremely easy to follow along and even fun!

On a side note, if you are ever looking for a contributor or someone to collaborate your project with, I would love to have an actual project to work on other than assignments >_<

 

[Antero360]

You mentioned YouTube channels and I suddenly thought about programming books. Is there any benefit from them for people older than 14 years? The topic of creating your own website is very interesting, especially on the example of already existing networks. I'm still in shock at how quickly TikTok has grown. But I understand that decent competition depends not only on a good code but also on an idea. Because a social network should be so successful that other people create programs like TikFreeFollowers to promote accounts, lol. Seriously, the existence of such applications is an indicator of success for me. After all, if people want to promote themselves or their product on your site, it means a lot.

Hi there, not sure what you are referring to in your question of benefits for people older than 14... are you referring to the books, or to the Youtube channels/social medias? On a side note: believe me when I tell you that good code has little to no effect on the success rate lol. Let's remember now, 90% of what I can create may already be out there with plenty of flavors. What really makes or breaks the success is a) how much you market the idea, and b) if the idea already exists, how is you version a better competitor

 

[JonnyD]

I think getting knowledge about business would be paramount for you to get your idea forward... quite frankly social media platforms are a money sink and then some.

You should first validate the idea and then build something, research the ones that came prior to yours and a failed (there are hundreds on your niche), do some market research with people you think may be interested on using it.

one idea I think might work is connecting people by their gaming profile interests, scrape the user data from PSN, XboxLive and Steam, do some data analytics, and match them with other users based on interest.

honestly the very initial coding of a social media platform isn't too complex, scaling and driving user is, you can start some prototype using something like bubble with very little coding knowledge.

Best of luck

 

[bethloudin]

Hey! It’s totally cool to want to start a social media platform, even if you’re just getting into tech. I’d recommend starting with the basics like HTML, CSS, and a little JavaScript—there are tons of free resources like Codecademy and freeCodeCamp that really helped me when I was learning. Once you get the hang of that, look into frameworks like React or Vue.js for building your app. Don’t forget about back-end stuff too; I found Python with Flask to be pretty beginner-friendly. And if you ever get stuck, online communities can be super helpful for advice and support.